


How Merry!

by astudyinfic



Series: Holidays 2020 [25]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Breaking and Entering, For festive reasons, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, M/M, Not Beta Read, Team MI6 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 10:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28349616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astudyinfic/pseuds/astudyinfic
Summary: James Bond might not decorate for Christmas, but this year, he doesn't have a choice.
Relationships: James Bond/Q, Q & Bill Tanner & Eve Moneypenny
Series: Holidays 2020 [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036116
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35





	How Merry!

**Author's Note:**

> **Day 25: Tree**
> 
> Prompts can be found [here](https://astudyinfic.tumblr.com/post/635866337200259072/decided-it-was-time-for-a-new-holiday-prompt-list).

Tanner glanced back at the door for the tenth time in the last five minutes. “How confident are you that he won’t shoot us?” he asked. 

“About fifty fifty,” Eve replied easily, her words muffled by the fact that her face was in a box, reaching for something. 

Sighing, Tanner shook his head. “I’m not sure if that is supposed to be reassuring or not.

“If it was before he and Q finally got together, I would have said twenty-five seventy-five, so be happy our quartermaster has mellowed him slightly.”

“If you two are done talking about my love life, we do have work here,” Q grumbled, though there was no hiding the smile on his face. Q hadn’t just been good for Bond. Bond had been good for him too, even if that was harder for people to see. 

A sound of triumph came from Eve and the box and she stood, holding the angel doll she’d been digging for. It had to be, quite possibly, the ugliest thing Q had ever seen. 

It was perfect. 

“Where did you find that monstrosity?” Tanner appeared to share Q’s opinion of the item and they both took an involuntary step back when Eve held it out to them. 

She chuckled and set it off to the side. “Thrift shop. Knew we had to have it.” 

Wherever she found it, it would definitely be going on the tree they were currently decorating in Bond’s flat. After the agent told them that he didn’t decorate for Christmas because there wasn’t a point, Bill, Eve, and Q hatched a plan. When Bond mentioned later that he also didn’t decorate because most of the decorations were unpleasant to look at, the plan morphed into something else. 

They were decorating Bond’s home while the agent was away on a mission. He was due to be back tomorrow but that didn’t mean anything. He could walk in right now, for all they knew. Bond rarely stuck to the script when it came to his work. Hence the reason Tanner was jumpy about him shooting them. It wasn’t likely that Bond would be understanding about people breaking into his home. 

And he was the shoot first, ask questions later kind of person. 

But Q did have his tracking activated so if Bond got anywhere near London before they were done, he would be alerted. He hadn’t told Bill and Eve just yet because everyone worked a little better under pressure. They wouldn’t have worked in espionage if they didn’t.

The decorations were really coming together. Tanner found some baubles from the seventies that had just enough glitter left on them to be annoying. Q had neon-colored lights that he programmed to flash at random intervals so one couldn’t quite get used to any pattern they might create. Eve’s angel tree topper was the perfect way to finish it off. It would be the ugliest tree in all of London, if not the whole country.

There were also garish lights everywhere, tinsel hung from every possible surface, and several bunches of mistletoe to be hung on the way out the door. They all decided it was safer that way so they wouldn’t accidentally have to kiss. They were all friends but none of them were interested in something like that. 

Besides the fact that Q could get CCTV footage and blackmail them for the rest of their lives, should he see fit. And he absolutely would do that. 

Everyone thought he was naive and almost innocent. How very wrong they were. He wasn’t the youngest quartermaster in MI6 history because he was polite.

They stood in the doorway when it was done and admired their work. You wouldn’t have guessed that James Bond, gentleman spy, lived in such a tacky looking place now that they were finished. It did look like the worst of Christmas had exploded all over the flat. 

Bond’s reaction was going to be entertaining. 

Two days later, James was back on British soil and after one of his customary briefings (where he handed Q’s gun back to him in one piece for a change), he announced he was going home and would see Q tomorrow. James liked time alone after a missing and Q usually had too much to do to be very entertaining anyway. It was better if they saw each other a day or two later. 

Then they would make up for lost time. 

Q turned on the CCTV camera he set up in Bond’s flat. He’d programmed it to run for only two hours after activation and then self-destruct. He didn’t want to leave a camera in his boyfriend’s flat indefinitely. He wasn’t cruel or stupid.

Tanner and Eve gathered at his desk to watch the show and Q was momentarily startled to see M there as well. “Don’t look at me like that. This will be the most amusement I have all week,” their boss told them and Q hid his smile behind his hand while he checked Bond’s tracker. 

“Two minutes,” he told them and they watched with rapt attention. 

There was no sound on the camera but they didn't need it to know what Bond was saying. There were some amusingly creative insults if Q was reading his lips properly. The angel came down first and Moneypenny laughed at that. They had a side bet as to what would offend him the most. "I win!"

"Not necessarily," Tanner pointed out. "Yours was the easiest to take down. We'll have to ask him if it was the worst overall." 

Q rather thought it was but he had a competitive streak a mile wide so he wasn't about to admit that. 

While they watched Bond undo all of their hard work, Q's phone buzzed and he wondered how Bond could have texted him without them knowing. He was getting better with technology. 

_Do I have you to blame for this?_

Chuckling, Q replied. _I had some help. Merry Christmas!_

Bond paused what he was doing and pulled out his phone to look at Q's response. _I will find you all_.

_Yes, you do know where we work. We did it because we love you._

_I love you too. You're still a dead man._

_Promises, promises. See you tomorrow, dear._

_Good night, Q._

Q smiled and set his phone aside. "Good news. I think we're going to be okay. Only about a thirty percent chance he kills us now."

Eve cheered while laughing and Tanner rolled his eyes. "Remind me why I'm friends with you lot again?"

"Because we're fun! We should start planning for the next holiday."

Shaking his head, M turned to head for the door. "I don't need to hear this. Don't get yourselves killed. And don't upset him too much."

"No promises, boss," Tanner replied and they all laughed. "So, for Valentine's Day, I was thinking...."


End file.
